Design & Animation by Casimir Fornalski

Graphic Design

Science of Cocktails

2012

Since I rocked the 2011 Science of Cocktails, I was happy to come back in 2012 to rebrand and design all of the visual assets for the Exploratorium Lab’s annual fundraising event.

While 2011 was an homage to the “World of Tomorrow”, 2012 leaped into the 1960s with playful references to mid-century modern and Swiss International design. Once again, I oversaw and carried out the creation of posters, exhibit signage, a program book, invitations, tickets for both general patrons and VIPs, advertising materials and recipe cards for more than a dozen tasty beverages.

Black & Pink Ball

2012

I’m an ardent supporter of causes that empower women & girls both at home and around the world. Naturally, when Spark asked me to design a logo and poster for their annual fundraising ball my answer was an enthusiastic “sure!”

Any project that taps into my love affair with 1920’s and 30’s graphic design is one I jump at the chance to take. That it was for a good cause as well made this job particularly satisfying.

Science of Cocktails

2011

The Exploratorium Lab knows how to throw a cocktail party. Their annual fundraising event invites young professionals to partake of science-themed libations and spend an evening playing with the institution’s many hands-on exhibits.

The brief called for a marketing campaign built around the themes and motifs of the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair—the “World of Tomorrow!” This was carried out across invitations, tickets, exhibit signage, print and web advertisements, programs and printed recipe cards for each experimental beverage crafted that evening.

Atheist Film Festival

2012

Rabble-rousing author and atheist speaker David Fitzgerald has grown the Atheist Film Festival from a small living room screening of secular-themed movies to an annual event that packs the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco.

I was lucky enough to get involved with them in their fourth year and designed a whole campaign based on the slogan “Reason is…” Through posters, programs, t-shirts, web and print ads, marketing materials and an animated promo, the festival celebrated humanist values and Enlightenment ideals and made for a heretically good time.

Cocktail Lab

2011

Ethan Terry and his bartending comrades have been cultivating one of San Francisco’s most original and exciting mixology collectives in the form of Cocktail Lab. Doing away with the traditional bartender-patron model, Cocktail Lab is meant to be an interactive, educational and unique experience that allows guests to learn the tricky dark art of drink making and experiment with new techniques and radical methods in search of a brain-bending beverage.

I was brought in to oversee and direct the group’s branding and design, beginning with a logo and currently producing posters, advertisements and visual assets.

Why Are You Atheists So Angry?

2012

When I heard the inimitable writer and speaker Greta Christina was publishing her first book, I immediately sent her my work and said “I want to do your book cover!” I’d been a dedicated reader of her blog for a number of years, and was lucky enough to discover we shared mutual friends. Upon showing her my idea for the cover, she was more than thrilled to bring me on board.

Greta is a powerful voice in the atheist movement. Combining sharp wit, incisive criticism, fearless inquiry and a touch of counter-cultural irreverence, the book needed a cover that reflected all of that with both confidence and simplicity.

Honest Man

2010

The remarkable and tragic story of Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer is explored in this affecting documentary from director James Dirschberger. Dwyer’s televised suicide in 1987 shocked the nation. This documentary sought to go beyond the headlines and remember Dwyer’s life, his family, and the maddening court case and failure of justice that ultimately brought him down.

I designed the poster, film logo, and DVD packaging for the film and contributed motion graphics and titles.